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Feds look at records, meet with department heads

Two agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made a stop at Revere City Hall on Monday and Tuesday and seemingly turned the Hall sideways.

Everyone was on edge.

Workers went up the stairs with file folders, and then came back down again.

Copies were made – apparently a lot of them.

Agents even met with some department heads.

It’s fair to say it was an anxious beginning of the week for several in City Hall.

Mayor Tom Ambrosino said he had heard that the Feds were in the building, but that they hadn’t visited him.

“They usually don’t alert me as to what they’re doing or when they’re coming,” said Mayor Ambrosino on Tuesday morning. “I’ve heard the same thing though, that they’re here…They haven’t met with me. I don’t think I’m under investigation. My life’s an open book.”

Meanwhile, though, FBI agents did visit the Inspectional Services Department on Monday, and they returned on Tuesday – according to Nick Catinazzo of the Inspectional Services Department.

Agents asked for specific building permits and they spent time speaking with Building Inspector Ben DeChristoforo Tuesday morning.

Catinazzo said the agents were accommodated, but he didn’t know what they were after.

“I don’t know what they were looking for,” said Catinazzo. “Two agents did come here and we accommodated all their requests. It’s anybody’s guess what they were after.”

The Journal even witnessed the two agents perusing files on Tuesday in the Building Department and visiting with members of that department.

Agents also, apparently, visited the Purchasing Agent, or at least procured several contracts from that department, according to a source.

Some postulated with anonymity that the situation could have been centered on transportation in the School Department.

Others, however, perhaps closer to the situation, said that the matter had to do with the recent Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Water Act settlement with the city, and the current sewer system investigations that are ongoing.

The source told the Journal – preferring to remain anonymous – that in the midst of investigating Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) they have resurfaced the old and once-contentious illegal drainlaying issue.

The source said that they have discovered that some of those illegal drainlaying jobs have significantly contributed to current CSOs – especially in the St. Mary’s Church area.

“This is all being controlled by the Department of Justice and they’re looking at all this old stuff now,” said the source. “The effects of what they did back then are now being found out. What matters is when it’s found and not when it was done.”

Of course, none of that could be confirmed completely as the FBI does not comment on their ongoing investigations, or even on their occasional trips to City Hall.

Such visits are not new.

Last year at this time, FBI agents also visited the Building Department on one day and pulled the files on the old ITAM. Nothing apparently happened as a result of that visit.

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It’s about time for the old guard to finally leave this town and let some progress into this sorry town